Aviation series on the Peace Region

Jul 16, 2023

Ponderings, as usual, will recap the last part of previous information to understand more easily what follows. In this case, "Wop" May's right eye blindness. It was caused by a steel shard flying off a lathe into his right eye while the was training with National Cash Register Company in 1924. Total blindness in that eye was slow, which allowed him to conceal his vision loss for 15 years. It wasn't until 1939, the loss was discovered, and his coveted flying licence revoked.

This part of May's story was not well known and thus writer Tom Robinson and filmmaker Frederick Kroetsch collaborated their talents to reveal various aspects of May's background, including the mishap that eventually cancelled his legal ability to fly. With the assistance and encouragement of "Wop" and Vi May's son, Denny, the collaborators made the short film Blind Ambition – with many connotations. It premiered at 2021 Edmonton International Film Festival.

Blind Ambition was filmed at several Alberta sites, including Alberta Aviation Museum; Stony Plain and Parkland Pioneer Museum, Wetaskiwin; Historic McKay Avenue School Archives and Museum; and Jasper National Park. At beginning of the film, Denny, "Wop" and Vi May's late son, is heard saying: "My dad was a bit of a superman, a bit like a superhero. People would say, ‘I remember when your dad was here’, or ‘I used to work for your dad’, and I would get all these wonderful stories. I think he wanted to help people and do whatever was necessary." In a CTV interview, Denny said: "We’ve got to remember our heroes. We’ve got to remember our heritage."

Kroetsch said Denny contributed a great deal to the making, not only of the film, but also "for keeping your father's history alive for thousands and thousands of people who met and heard you speak about such an important part of Alberta and Canada's past". Denny is the "heart and soul of this documentary". Denny died in 1921 – "less than 24 hours before the film he pushed to have created was to premiere".

Although you were promised more "Wop" May background, this seems a good time to intervene – go off on a tangent, as it were, as your scribe often does. However, when you continue reading, you will appreciate the connection – yes aircraft are involved.

You might want to think of this tangent as waiting, on a wing and a prayer, to unite in marriage. On one's wedding day the hope is things go well, or at least as planned. Inevitably, there's some glitch. Usually, the gift of time provides a sense of humour and a great topic for storytelling. Well, here is one such story your scribe stumbled upon while researching Peace River airports – something like the finding by chance of the association of one of Peace River's airports and Major Gustav Heinrich Schoof many Ponderings ago.

The headline of the December 31, 1937, issue of the Peace River Record sets the tone: Storm forces down U.A.T. plane carrying wedding party north – The reported tale follows: "While Dr. H. Hamman of Fort Vermilion and his bride-to-be, Miss Helen Tomick, waited vainly for the minister, who was to perform their wedding ceremony, [Anglican] Rev. Canon Harrison, the minister, together with Dr. T. Agnew, who was to be best man, and a parcel equally important, containing the bride's trousseau [its importance later to be revealed],were preparing to spend the night in the United Airways plane piloted by Grant McConachie [about whom we heard a while back], head of United Air transport, which had made a forced landing somewhere between Peace River and Carcajou.

"Responding to the call from Fort Vermilion for plane service to take Canon Harrison to Fort Vermilion, pilot McConachie circled over Peace River at 10 a.m. Thursday and a few minutes later landed at the airport, where Canon Harrison and Dr. Agnew stepped aboard for their trip north."

Stepping onto the airplane wasn't quite as simple as that, according to the Northern Gazette, the second Peace River newspaper until the two amalgamated in 1939. On the way to the airport "difficulties were encountered by the Star Taxi in reaching the plane at the Peace River airport [current location] owing to deep snow [on George (West) Hill with the result that the pilot had to remain in his machine at the field for some time".

Eventually, the plane took off as snow was falling lightly – nothing to cause concern. However, a half hour later that changed, as a storm confronted them reducing visibility to almost nothing. McConachie managed to land "on a patch of open ground somewhere this side of Carcajou. During the afternoon radio calls from the plane were being received at Edmonton and Fort St. John enquiring regarding the weather. Enquiries made by government telegraph elicited the information that at 3 p.m. the storm at Carcajou was so heavy that visibility across the width of the river was impossible." Foreseeing the challenge the weather could present, provisions had been put on board for what was certain to be an overnight stay at their emergency landing spot.

"Meantime, a would-be bride and groom have no choice but to postpone their wedding date at least 24 hours."

The Northern Gazette headlined its January 7, 1938, issue thus: An Eventual Trip By Plane To Ft. Vermilion introduced an article by Canon W.E. Harrison in which he tells us what he and his fellow travellers experienced on that flight. The Peace River Record of same date presented Canon Harrison's article under heading: Party Has Many Adventures When Plane Forced Down.

Harrison writes: "Last week a WACO plane, piloted by Grant McConachie, head of the United Air Transport and Fred Murdoch as radio operator, left the airport at Peace River with a small wedding party for Fort Vermilion. The passengers were Dr. T.J. Agnew and me. We left on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 30th, in. a slight fall of snow and ran into bad weather, which confined us to a low altitude and the confines of the Peace Valley. The weather gradually grew worse until visibility was less than a quarter of a mile and a forced landing was inevitable. A few miles below the Battle River the plane circled in the blizzard looking for a landing. The pilot showed excellent judgement in choosing a snye [a narrow, meandering side channel] where a perfect landing was made under very trying conditions.

"For nearly an hour before landing our windows had been gummed up with frost and snow so that it was necessary for the pilot to have his window open for visibility and at the same time admit an icy blast. The two passengers made a windbreak of the big flat box containing the bride's trousseau. (There are times when one is justified in hiding behind a woman's skirt).

"After landing in the snye, the radio operator got in touch with Edmonton and the pilot looked after the machine while the doctor and I rustled in the bush for some wood and made a campfire, expecting to stay there for the night. The prospects were not so terrible as there was an adequate food supply in the plane. Just as the fire was going nicely a fifth person appeared from nowhere.

Next Ponderings, we will discover who the fifth person was and what transpired.

Sources: Peace River Remembers; Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada; Canadian Encyclopedia; Bush Pilot With a Briefcase book review by John S. Goulet; May 1941 edition of Canadian Aviation; Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre files; Vancouver History: Grant McConachie by Rebecca Bollwitt; Famous, Should be Famous, and Infamous Canadians; Punch Dickins Flies the Barrens; Punch Dickins – Snow Eagle; Bush Pilots and Barnstormers – Punch Dickins; Bush Pilots, Canada's Wilderness Daredevils, Peter Boer; Globe and Mail – How a flying entrepreneur helped forge Canada's aviation industry; Max Ward; Quality Above All; Max Ward and His Maverick Airline by Hugh Quigley; Remarkable Albertans – Alberta Order of Excellence Legacy Collection; Amazing Flights and Flyers, Shirlee Smith Matheson; Wings Magazine; Alberta Teachers’ Association – David Kirkham; Globe and Mail; Record-Gazette; Flying Canucks

Beth Wilkins is a researcher at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

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